When a magnetic tape user determines that data stored on the magnetic tape is no longer needed, there is often a security need to destroy or erase the data before relinquishing control over the tape. It may also be useful and provide cost savings to preserve the servo information on the tape so that the tape may be reused. The servo information is written to the tape during manufacture of a tape cartridge in a precision servo formatting operation. Potential re-use of the tape prevents use of “bulk erase” processes which would erase both the data and the servo information. A current method of erasing data without erasing the servo information comprises providing a special erase tape drive with erase heads specifically designed and arranged to erase the data area. Another method is to provide an application for a host system to write data that is useless or that comprises a special pattern to the tape, but this is time consuming and expensive because of the involvement of the host system to access the tape drive and do the writing to every track of the magnetic tape that has data recorded thereon.